The City Council on Monday, Nov. 8 selected the first five board members for the newly created non-profit Seal Beach Historical Resources Foundation.
“Under the proposed Bylaws, the City Council is to appoint the first five members of the Board of Directors, and the Foundation will operate independently thereafter, in cooperation with the City,” according to the staff report by City Clerk Gloria Harper.
“The applicants were not selected based on Council Districts and are not in any order of preference,” Harper wrote.
During the meeting, District One Councilman/Mayor Joe Kalmick said the council did not deliberate on the selection. He said the selections were compiled by city staff.
District Five Councilwoman Sandra Massa Lavitt thanked all the applicants. “There was a lot more than five that could have been on this panel,” she said.
She wished the board members good luck.
“Have a good time doing this,” she said.
The appointees were, in the order that they appeared in the staff report:
• Lorenz (Larry) Krueger, of Council District Three, founder of three non-profit foundations.
• Deb Machen of District One, co-chair of marketing for the Centennial Committee.
• Emily Parris Sandler of District One, with 12 years of experience as a professional non-profit fundraiser.
• Linda Stauffer of District Three, a history major at CSULB.
• Larry Strawther, of Los Alamitos, a local historian.
Seventeen people initially applied for the five seats. Mechelle Lawrence Adams, of District One, withdrew her application on Thursday, Oct. 28, according to the staff report for this week’s Seal Beach City Council meeting.
The City Council authorized Seal Beach staff to file the articles of incorporation for the non-profit in July 2021. The council approved the creation of the non-profit after the Seal Beach Historical Society sold the Red Car Museum to the Seal Beach Lions Club. The now empty Musem is located on the Greenbelt next to the Mary Wilson Library.
